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Analyzing the spreading of information in many-body systems is crucial to understanding their quantum dynamics. At the most fundamental level, this task is accomplished by Bell inequalities, whose violation by quantum mechanics implies that information cannot always be stored locally. While Bell-like inequalities, such as the one of Clauser and Horne, envisage a situation in which two parties perform measurements on systems at different positions, one could formulate temporal inequalities, in which the two parties measure at different times. However, for causally-connected parties, these extensions are compatible with local hidden-variable theories, so that no intrinsically-quantum information spreading occurs in such temporal correlations. Here we show that a temporal Clauser-Horne inequality for two spins is violated for a nonzero time interval between the measurements if the two measured parties are connected by a spin chain. The chain constitutes a medium for the spreading of quantum information, which prevents the immediate signaling and thus the deterministic time evolution after the first measurement. Our result suggests that, as expected in a many-body setup, the Lieb-Robinson bound substitutes the speed of light as the fundamental limit for the spreading of information., Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure

The control over the geometry and topology of quantum systems is crucial for advancing novel quantum technologies. This work provides a synthesis of recent insights into the behaviour of quantum vortices within atomic Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) subject to curved geometric constraints. We highlight the significant impact of the curvature on the condensate density and phase distribution, particularly in quasi-one-dimensional waveguides for different angular momentum states. An engineered periodic transport of the quantized vorticity between density-coupled ring-shaped condensates is discussed. The significant role of curved geometry in shaping the dynamics of rotational Josephson vortices in long atomic Josephson junctions is illustrated for the system of vertically stacked toroidal condensates. Different methods for the controlled creation of rotational Josephson vortices in coupled ring systems are described in the context of the formation of long-lived vortex configurations in shell-shaped BECs with cylindrical geometry. Future directions of explorations of vortices in curved geometries with implications for quantum information processing and sensing technologies are discussed., Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures

We investigate the ground state properties of $N$ bosons with attractive zero-range interactions characterized by the scattering length $a>0$ and confined to the surface of a sphere of radius $R$. We present the analytic solution of the problem for $N=2$, mean-field analysis for $N\rightarrow \infty$, and exact diffusion Monte-Carlo results for intermediate $N$. For finite $N$, we observe a smooth crossover from the uniform state in the limit $a/R\gg 1$ (weak attraction) to a localized state at small $a/R$ (strong attraction). With increasing $N$ this crossover narrows down to a discontinuous transition from the uniform state to a soliton of size $\sim R/\sqrt{N}$. The two states are separated by an energy barrier, tunneling under which is exponentially suppressed at large $N$. The system behavior is marked by a peculiar competition between space-curvature effects and beyond-mean-field terms, both breaking the scaling invariance of a two-dimensional mean-field theory., Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures

We study binding of $N$ identical heavy fermions by a light atom in two dimensions assuming zero-range attractive heavy-light interactions. By using the mean-field theory valid for large $N$ we show that the $N+1$ cluster is bound when the mass ratio exceeds $1.074N^2$. The mean-field theory, being scale invariant in two dimensions, predicts only the shapes of the clusters leaving their sizes and energies undefined. By taking into account beyond-mean-field effects we find closed-form expressions for these quantities. We also discuss differences between the Thomas-Fermi and Hartree-Fock approaches for treating the heavy fermions., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures

We review the quantum statistical properties of two-dimensional shell-shaped gases, produced by cooling and confining atomic ensembles in thin hollow shells. We consider both spherical and ellipsoidal shapes, discussing at zero and at finite temperature the phenomena of Bose-Einstein condensation and of superfluidity, the physics of vortices, and the crossover from the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer regime to a Bose-Einstein condensate. The novel aspects associated to the curved geometry are elucidated in comparison with flat two-dimensional superfluids. We also describe the hydrodynamic excitations and their relation with the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition for two-dimensional flat and curved superfluids. In the next years, shell-shaped atomic gases will be the leading experimental platform for investigations of quantum many-body physics in curved spatial domains., Comment: 58 pages, 16 figures, accepted version

Originally developed as a theory of consciousness, integrated information theory provides a mathematical framework to quantify the causal irreducibility of systems and subsets of units in the system. Specifically, mechanism integrated information quantifies how much of the causal powers of a subset of units in a state, also referred to as a mechanism, cannot be accounted for by its parts. If the causal powers of the mechanism can be fully explained by its parts, it is reducible and its integrated information is zero. Here, we study the upper bound of this measure and how it is achieved. We study mechanisms in isolation, groups of mechanisms, and groups of causal relations among mechanisms. We put forward new theoretical results that show mechanisms that share parts with each other cannot all achieve their maximum. We also introduce techniques to design systems that can maximize the integrated information of a subset of their mechanisms or relations. Our results can potentially be used to exploit the symmetries and constraints to reduce the computations significantly and to compare different connectivity profiles in terms of their maximal achievable integrated information.

Atomic gases confined in curved geometries are characterized by distinctive features that are absent in their flat counterparts, such as periodic boundaries, local curvature, and nontrivial topologies. The recent experiments with shell-shaped quantum gases and the study of ring-shaped superfluids point out that the manifold of a quantum gas could soon become a controllable feature, thus allowing to address the fundamental study of curved many-body quantum systems. Here, we review the main geometries realized in the experiments, analyzing the theoretical and experimental status on their phase transitions and on the superfluid dynamics. In perspective, we delineate the study of vortices, the few-body physics, and the search for analog models in various curved geometries as the most promising research areas., Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, peer-reviewed version. The final edited version is available at https://rdcu.be/dc5mx

This paper presents Integrated Information Theory (IIT) 4.0. IIT aims to account for the properties of experience in physical (operational) terms. It identifies the essential properties of experience (axioms), infers the necessary and sufficient properties that its substrate must satisfy (postulates), and expresses them in mathematical terms. In principle, the postulates can be applied to any system of units in a state to determine whether it is conscious, to what degree, and in what way. IIT offers a parsimonious explanation of empirical evidence, makes testable predictions, and permits inferences and extrapolations. IIT 4.0 incorporates several developments of the past ten years, including a more accurate translation of axioms into postulates and mathematical expressions, the introduction of a unique measure of intrinsic information that is consistent with the postulates, and an explicit assessment of causal relations. By fully unfolding a system's irreducible cause-effect power, the distinctions and relations specified by a substrate can account for the quality of experience., Comment: Correspondence to: gtononi@wisc.edu. 53 pages, 8 figures

Integrated information theory (IIT) starts from consciousness itself and identifies a set of properties (axioms) that are true of every conceivable experience. The axioms are translated into a set of postulates about the substrate of consciousness (called a complex), which are then used to formulate a mathematical framework for assessing both the quality and quantity of experience. The explanatory identity proposed by IIT is that an experience is identical to the cause-effect structure unfolded from a maximally irreducible substrate (a $\Phi$-structure). In this work we introduce a definition for the integrated information of a system ($\varphi_s$) that is based on the existence, intrinsicality, information, and integration postulates of IIT. We explore how notions of determinism, degeneracy, and fault lines in the connectivity impact system integrated information. We then demonstrate how the proposed measure identifies complexes as systems whose $\varphi_s$ is greater than the $\varphi_s$ of any overlapping candidate systems., Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures

Progress in understanding quantum systems has been driven by the exploration of the geometry, topology, and dimensionality of ultracold atomic systems. The NASA Cold Atom Laboratory (CAL) aboard the International Space Station has enabled the study of ultracold atomic bubbles, a terrestrially-inaccessible topology. Proof-of-principle bubble experiments have been performed on CAL with an rf-dressing technique; an alternate technique (dual-species interaction-driven bubbles) has also been proposed. Both techniques can drive discovery in the next decade of fundamental physics research in microgravity., Comment: 17 pages, 2 figures

We review our theoretical results about the sound propagation in two-dimensional (2D) systems of ultracold fermionic and bosonic atoms. In the superfluid phase, characterized by the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the $U(1)$ symmetry, there is the coexistence of first and second sound. In the case of weakly-interacting repulsive bosons, we model the recent measurements of the sound velocities of 39K atoms in 2D obtained in the weakly-interacting regime and around the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) superfluid-to-normal transition temperature. In particular, we perform a quite accurate computation of the superfluid density and show that it is reasonably consistent with the experiment. For superfluid attractive fermions, we calculate the first and second sound velocities across the whole BCS-BEC crossover. In the low-temperature regime we reproduce the recent measurements of first-sound speed with 6Li atoms. We also predict that only in the finite-temperature BEC regime there is mixing between sound modes., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure, review paper based on previously published results for two dimensional repulsive bosons arXiv:2011.11352 and two-dimensional attractive fermions arXiv:2009.06491

For sufficiently large mass ratios the attractive exchange force caused by a single light atom interacting with a few heavy identical fermions can overcome their Fermi degeneracy pressure and bind them into an $N+1$ cluster. Here, by using a mean-field approach valid for large $N$, we find that $N+1$ clusters can attract each other and form a self-bound charge density wave, the properties of which we fully characterize. Our work shows that there are no fundamental obstacles for having self-bound states in fermionic mixtures with zero-range interactions., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

This essay addresses the implications of integrated information theory (IIT) for free will. IIT is a theory of what consciousness is and what it takes to have it. According to IIT, the presence of consciousness is accounted for by a maximum of cause-effect power in the brain. Moreover, the way specific experiences feel is accounted for by how that cause-effect power is structured. If IIT is right, we do have free will in the fundamental sense: we have true alternatives, we make true decisions, and we - not our neurons or atoms - are the true cause of our willed actions and bear true responsibility for them. IIT's argument for true free will hinges on the proper understanding of consciousness as true existence, as captured by its intrinsic powers ontology: what truly exists, in physical terms, are intrinsic entities, and only what truly exists can cause., Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures

We consider the problem of $N$ identical fermions interacting via a zero-range attractive potential with a lighter atom in one dimension. Using the few-body approach based on the Skorniakov and Ter-Martirosian equation, we determine the energies and the critical mass ratios for the emergence of the tetramer, pentamer, and hexamer. For large $N$, we solve the problem analytically by using the mean-field theory based on the Thomas-Fermi approximation. The system becomes bound when the heavy-to-light mass ratio exceeds a critical value which grows as $N^3$ at large $N$. We also employ a more sophisticated Hartree-Fock approach, which turns out to be equivalent to the Thomas-Fermi approximation for determining the energies, but provides a better description of the microscopic structure of the clusters., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

We analyze the scattering problem of identical bosonic particles confined on a spherical surface. At low scattering energies and for a radius much larger than the healing length, we express the contact interaction strength in terms of the s-wave scattering length. Adopting this relation, we are then able to regularize the zero-point energy of the spherical Bose gas and to obtain its equation of state, which includes the corrections due to the finite radius of the sphere and coincides with the flat-case result in the infinite-radius limit. We also provide a microscopic derivation of the superfluid density of the system, reproducing a result postulated in a previous work. Our results are relevant for modeling the ongoing microgravity experiments with two-dimensional bubble-trapped Bose-Einstein condensates., Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure

Ultracold quantum gases are highly controllable and, thus, capable of simulating difficult quantum many-body problems ranging from condensed matter physics to astrophysics. Although experimental realizations have so far been restricted to flat geometries, recently also curved quantum systems, with the prospect of exploring tunable geometries, are produced in microgravity facilities as ground-based experiments are technically limited. Here we analyze bubble-trapped condensates, in which the atoms are confined on the surface of a thin spherically-symmetric shell by means of external magnetic fields. A thermally-induced proliferation of vorticity yields a vanishing of superfluidity. We describe the occurrence of this topological transition by conceptually extending the theory of Berezinskii, Kosterlitz and Thouless for infinite uniform systems to such finite-size systems. Unexpectedly, we find universal scaling relations for the mean critical temperature and the finite width of the superfluid transition. Furthermore, we elucidate how they could be experimentally observed in finite-temperature hydrodynamic excitations., Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures

If we take the subjective character of consciousness seriously, consciousness becomes a matter of "being" rather than "doing". Because "doing" can be dissociated from "being", functional criteria alone are insufficient to decide whether a system possesses the necessary requirements for being a physical substrate of consciousness. The dissociation between "being" and "doing" is most salient in artificial general intelligence, which may soon replicate any human capacity: computers can perform complex functions (in the limit resembling human behavior) in the absence of consciousness. Complex behavior becomes meaningless if it is not performed by a conscious being., Comment: 4 pages; German version of this article to appear as a contribution to the anthology "Artificial Intelligence with Consciousness? Statements 2021" edited by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

We theoretically investigate sound modes in a weakly-interacting collisional Bose gas in $D$ dimensions. Using the Landau's two-fluid hydrodynamics and working within the Bogoliubov theory, we observe the hybridization of the first and second sound modes for $D\ge 2$. To model the recent measurements of the sound velocities in 2D, obtained in the weakly-interacting regime and around the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition temperature, we derive a refined calculation of the superfluid density, finding a fair agreement with the experiment. In the 1D case, for which experimental results are currently unavailable, we find no hybridization, triggering the necessity of future investigations. Our analysis provides a systematic understanding of sound propagation in a collisional weakly-interacting Bose gas in $D$ dimensions., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in New Journal of Physics

Sound propagation is a macroscopic manifestation of the interplay between the equilibrium thermodynamics and the dynamical transport properties of fluids. Here, for a two-dimensional system of ultracold fermions, we calculate the first and second sound velocities across the whole BCS-BEC crossover and we analyze the system response to an external perturbation. In the low-temperature regime we reproduce the recent measurements [Phys Rev. Lett. {\bf 124}, 240403 (2020)] of the first sound velocity, which, due to the decoupling of density and entropy fluctuations, is the sole mode excited by a density probe. Conversely, a heat perturbation excites only the second sound, which, being sensitive to the superfluid depletion, vanishes in the deep BCS regime, and jumps discontinuously to zero at the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless superfluid transition. A mixing between the modes occurs only in the finite-temperature BEC regime, where our theory converges to the purely bosonic results., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures; published version, correction of journal reference

In science, macro level descriptions of the causal interactions within complex, dynamical systems are typically deemed convenient, but ultimately reducible to a complete causal account of the underlying micro constituents. Yet, such a reductionist perspective is hard to square with several issues related to autonomy and agency: (1) agents require (causal) borders that separate them from the environment, (2) at least in a biological context, agents are associated with macroscopic systems, and (3) agents are supposed to act upon their environment. Integrated information theory (IIT) (Oizumi et al., 2014) offers a quantitative account of causation based on a set of causal principles, including notions such as causal specificity, composition, and irreducibility, that challenges the reductionist perspective in multiple ways. First, the IIT formalism provides a complete account of a system's causal structure, including irreducible higher-order mechanisms constituted of multiple system elements. Second, a system's amount of integrated information ($\Phi$) measures the causal constraints a system exerts onto itself and can peak at a macro level of description (Hoel et al., 2016; Marshall et al., 2018). Finally, the causal principles of IIT can also be employed to identify and quantify the actual causes of events ("what caused what"), such as an agent's actions (Albantakis et al., 2019). Here, we demonstrate this framework by example of a simulated agent, equipped with a small neural network, that forms a maximum of $\Phi$ at a macro scale., Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures; to appear as a chapter in "Top-Down Causation and Emergence" published by Springer as part of the Synthese Library Book Series; F.M. and M.B. contributed equally to this work

We study the quantum tunneling of two one-dimensional quasi-condensates made of alkali-metal atoms, considering two different tunneling configurations: side-by-side and head-to-tail. After deriving the quasiparticle excitation spectrum, we discuss the dynamics of the relative phase following a sudden coupling of the independent subsystems. In particular, we calculate the coherence factor of the system, which, due to the nonzero tunneling amplitude, it exhibits dephasing-rephasing oscillations instead of pure dephasing. These oscillations are enhanced by a higher tunneling energy, and by higher system densities. Our predictions provide a benchmark for future experiments at temperatures below $T \lesssim 5 \, \mbox{nK}$., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures

The recent developments of microgravity experiments with ultracold atoms have produced a relevant boost in the study of shell-shaped ellipsoidal Bose-Einstein condensates. For realistic bubble-trap parameters, here we calculate the critical temperature of Bose-Einstein condensation, which, if compared to the one of the bare harmonic trap with the same frequencies, shows a strong reduction. We simulate the zero-temperature density distribution with the Gross-Pitaevskii equation, and we study the free expansion of the hollow condensate. While part of the atoms expands in the outward direction, the condensate self-interferes inside the bubble trap, filling the hole in experimentally observable times. For a mesoscopic number of particles in a strongly interacting regime, for which more refined approaches are needed, we employ quantum Monte Carlo simulations, proving that the nontrivial topology of a thin shell allows superfluidity. Our work constitutes a reliable benchmark for the forthcoming scientific investigations with bubble traps., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures; published version

We analyze the effect of the sedimentation of $^{22}$Ne on the local white dwarf luminosity function by studying scenarios under different Galactic metallicity models. We make use of an up-to-date population synthesis code based on Monte Carlo techniques to derive the synthetic luminosity function. Constant solar metallicity models are not able to simultaneously reproduce the peak and cut-off of the white dwarf luminosity function. The extra release of energy due to $^{22}$Ne sedimentation piles up more objects in brighter bins of the faint end of the luminosity function. The contribution of a single burst thick disk population increases the number of stars in the magnitude interval centered around $M_{\rm bol}=15.75$. Among the metallicity models studied, the one following a Twarog's profile is disposable. Our best fit model was obtained when a dispersion in metallicities around the solar metallicity value is considered along with a $^{22}$Ne sedimentation model, a thick disk contribution and an age of the thin disk of $8.8\pm0.2$ Gyr. Our population synthesis model is able to reproduce the local white dwarf luminosity function with a high degree of precision when a dispersion in metallicities around the solar value model is adopted. Although the effects of $^{22}$Ne sedimentation are only marginal and the contribution of a thick disk population is minor, both of them help in better fitting the peak and the cut-off regions of the white dwarf luminosity function., Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures and 2 tables; accepted for publication in A&A

An agent's actions can be influenced by external factors through the inputs it receives from the environment, as well as internal factors, such as memories or intrinsic preferences. The extent to which an agent's actions are "caused from within", as opposed to being externally driven, should depend on its sensor capacity as well as environmental demands for memory and context-dependent behavior. Here, we test this hypothesis using simulated agents ("animats"), equipped with small adaptive Markov Brains (MB) that evolve to solve a perceptual-categorization task under conditions varied with regards to the agents' sensor capacity and task difficulty. Using a novel formalism developed to identify and quantify the actual causes of occurrences ("what caused what?") in complex networks, we evaluate the direct causes of the animats' actions. In addition, we extend this framework to trace the causal chain ("causes of causes") leading to an animat's actions back in time, and compare the obtained spatio-temporal causal history across task conditions. We found that measures quantifying the extent to which an animat's actions are caused by internal factors (as opposed to being driven by the environment through its sensors) varied consistently with defining aspects of the task conditions they evolved to thrive in., Comment: Submitted and accepted to Alife 2019 conference. Revised version: edits include adding more references to relevant work and clarifying minor points in response to reviewers

Motivated by the recent achievement of space-based Bose-Einstein condensates (BEC) with ultracold alkali-metal atoms under microgravity and by the proposal of bubble traps which confine atoms on a thin shell, we investigate the BEC thermodynamics on the surface of a sphere. We determine analytically the critical temperature and the condensate fraction of a noninteracting Bose gas. Then we consider the inclusion of a zero-range interatomic potential, extending the noninteracting results at zero and finite temperature. Both in the noninteracting and interacting cases the crucial role of the finite radius of the sphere is emphasized, showing that in the limit of infinite radius one recovers the familiar two-dimensional results. We also investigate the Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition driven by vortical configurations on the surface of the sphere, analyzing the interplay of condensation and superfluidity in this finite-size system., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

Recent experimental and theoretical results show that weakly interacting atomic Bose-Bose mixtures with attractive interspecies interaction are stabilized by beyond-mean-field effects. Here we consider the peculiar properties of these systems in a strictly one-dimensional configuration, taking also into account the nontrivial role of spin-orbit and Rabi couplings. We show that when the value of inter- and intraspecies interaction strengths are such that mean-field contributions to the energy cancel, a self-bound bright soliton fully governed by quantum fluctuations exists. We derive the phase diagram of the phase transition between a single-peak soliton and a multipeak (striped) soliton, produced by the interplay between spin-orbit, Rabi couplings and beyond-mean-field effects, which also affect the breathing mode frequency of the atomic cloud. Finally, we prove that a phase imprinting of the single-peak soliton leads to a self-confined propagating solitary wave even in the presence of spin-orbit coupling., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, published in Phys. Rev. A

We derive the two-dimensional equation of state for a bosonic system of ultracold atoms interacting with a finite-range effective interaction. Within a functional integration approach, we employ an hydrodynamic parametrization of the bosonic field to calculate the superfluid equations of motion and the zero-temperature pressure. The ultraviolet divergences, naturally arising from the finite-range interaction, are regularized with an improved dimensional regularization technique., Comment: 10 pages, no figures

We investigate an ultracold and dilute Bose gas by taking into account a finite-range two-body interaction. The coupling constants of the resulting Lagrangian density are related to measurable scattering parameters by following the effective-field-theory approach. A perturbative scheme is then developed up to the Gaussian level, where both quantum and thermal fluctuations are crucially affected by finite-range corrections. In particular, the relation between spontaneous symmetry breaking and the onset of superfluidity is emphasized by recovering the renowned Landau's equation for the superfluid density in terms of the condensate one., Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, invited contribution to New Journal of Physics Focus Issue on Quantum Transport in Ultracold Atoms

Integrated information theory provides a mathematical framework to fully characterize the cause-effect structure of a physical system. Here, we introduce PyPhi, a Python software package that implements this framework for causal analysis and unfolds the full cause-effect structure of discrete dynamical systems of binary elements. The software allows users to easily study these structures, serves as an up-to-date reference implementation of the formalisms of integrated information theory, and has been applied in research on complexity, emergence, and certain biological questions. We first provide an overview of the main algorithm and demonstrate PyPhi's functionality in the course of analyzing an example system, and then describe details of the algorithm's design and implementation. PyPhi can be installed with Python's package manager via the command 'pip install pyphi' on Linux and macOS systems equipped with Python 3.4 or higher. PyPhi is open-source and licensed under the GPLv3; the source code is hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/wmayner/pyphi . Comprehensive and continually-updated documentation is available at https://pyphi.readthedocs.io/ . The pyphi-users mailing list can be joined at https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/pyphi-users . A web-based graphical interface to the software is available at http://integratedinformationtheory.org/calculate.html ., Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, 6 pages of appendices. Supporting information "S1 Calculating Phi" can be found in the ancillary files

Standard techniques for studying biological systems largely focus on their dynamical, or, more recently, their informational properties, usually taking either a reductionist or holistic perspective. Yet, studying only individual system elements or the dynamics of the system as a whole disregards the organisational structure of the system - whether there are subsets of elements with joint causes or effects, and whether the system is strongly integrated or composed of several loosely interacting components. Integrated information theory (IIT), offers a theoretical framework to (1) investigate the compositional cause-effect structure of a system, and to (2) identify causal borders of highly integrated elements comprising local maxima of intrinsic cause-effect power. Here we apply this comprehensive causal analysis to a Boolean network model of the fission yeast (Schizosaccharomyces pombe) cell-cycle. We demonstrate that this biological model features a non-trivial causal architecture, whose discovery may provide insights about the real cell cycle that could not be gained from holistic or reductionist approaches. We also show how some specific properties of this underlying causal architecture relate to the biological notion of autonomy. Ultimately, we suggest that analysing the causal organisation of a system, including key features like intrinsic control and stable causal borders, should prove relevant for distinguishing life from non-life, and thus could also illuminate the origin of life problem., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A

Actual causation is concerned with the question "what caused what?" Consider a transition between two states within a system of interacting elements, such as an artificial neural network, or a biological brain circuit. Which combination of synapses caused the neuron to fire? Which image features caused the classifier to misinterpret the picture? Even detailed knowledge of the system's causal network, its elements, their states, connectivity, and dynamics does not automatically provide a straightforward answer to the "what caused what?" question. Counterfactual accounts of actual causation based on graphical models, paired with system interventions, have demonstrated initial success in addressing specific problem cases in line with intuitive causal judgments. Here, we start from a set of basic requirements for causation (realization, composition, information, integration, and exclusion) and develop a rigorous, quantitative account of actual causation that is generally applicable to discrete dynamical systems. We present a formal framework to evaluate these causal requirements that is based on system interventions and partitions, and considers all counterfactuals of a state transition. This framework is used to provide a complete causal account of the transition by identifying and quantifying the strength of all actual causes and effects linking the two consecutive system states. Finally, we examine several exemplary cases and paradoxes of causation and show that they can be illuminated by the proposed framework for quantifying actual causation., Comment: 43 pages, 16 figures, supplementary discussion, supplementary methods, supplementary proofs